Friant painted the serenity of those who understand that love is a simple thing
A simple walk, stopping on a bridge, in front of a stream to admire the landscape, keeping eye contact to exchange love, to read inside each other’s eyes and heart the happiness to have found the right person to share your life with, and all this by silence, in the absolute serenity of those who understood that love is a simple thing.
This is the message of Émile Friant, the French naturalist painter of the second half of the Nineteenth Century, composition which may seem static, but that concentrates all its expressive strength and dynamism in lovers’ eyes and in the sweet and intense dialogue, which remains silent on their closed lips but that is emitted from their look, the real protagonists of the action.
It is shown the meeting of two souls that communicate what words cannot say.
The sentiment is set in a natural landscape, calm and reassuring, this fluidity is taken from the soft lines of the elbows resting on the wall, the protagonists are supported in the same way as if they were one another mirror.
The artist's choice of painting the lovers from the back seems to leave everything else out, to better tap into each other what they need.
Friant shows us a scene from everyday life, without excess or frills. Love without time, without haste but with the pure and the absolute certainty of who has found his place in the world, which is not a location, but is about standing next to the one you love.
Technical details of the painting
Artist: Émile Friant (Dieuze, April 16, 1863 - Paris, June 9, 1932 )
Title Français: Les Amoureux (Soir d'automne, Idylle sur la passerelle)
English: The Lovers (Autumn Evening)
Date: 1888
Dimensions: 111 x 145 cm (43.7 × 57.1 in)
Current location: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy
Medium: Oil on canvas
